How To Get The Classic Windows Start Menu Back In Windows 7

Microsoft removed the Classic Start Menu from Windows 7. Though the new Start Menu is very good and it works perfectly. Veteran Windows users may want to see their lovable Classic Start Menu back. After all, old habits die-hard and we are so used to using the classic menu! So, we went out in the quest to get back our favorite Classic Start Menu for Windows 7.

We found two freeware software that does a pretty good job in emulating the look and functionality of the Classic Start Menu in Windows 7. The first one is named CSMenu and the second one is called Classic Windows Start Menu or in short CWSM.

CSMenu

CSMenu is a small freeware application that does a good job in terms of look and function as the original Classic Start Menu was.

You can see for yourself the CSMenu in action below:

CSMenu

CSMenu comes as a standard windows installer and the installation process is simple.

Download CSMenu from its official website.

Note: During installation make sure you select “Custom Installation” option. It comes bundles with Ask Toolbar, so make sure you uncheck the options to install Ask Toolbar.

Classic Windows Start Menu (CWSM)

CWSM is a little different from our earlier application, CSMenu. It is much more customizable, looks good and it is much more customizable.

cwsm

As you can see in the screenshot above, CWSM supports Windows Aero. You can change the text, background image, the logo present in the left-side, icons, etc. Simply change the files logoffback.bmp, ribbon.bmp and shutdownback.bmp that came within the zip file. You can change the Log off dialog box, left-side logo and Shutdown dialog box background. If you want to adjust the Aero glassy effect, change the strings.xml file that came with it and set the following:

<MENU BACKGROUND PRESENT>Yes</> to <MENU BACKGROUND PRESENT>No</>.

After the file is customized, restart CWSM to see the changes. To exit from CWSM, right-click on the Start Orb and click on Yes button. After that, run the executable file cwsm.exe again. CWSM may also work in older Windows versions.

Download CWSM (Classic Windows Start Menu) from here (Web Archive link as developer’s website is not available anymore).

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